(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-08-09 10:01

BEIJING - A second storm bore down on Taiwan and Chinese mainland on Thursday, triggering orders to bring back more than 266,000 fishermen and others working at sea off the Chinese coast, state media said.

Tropical storm Pabuk swept through east China late on Wednesday, unleashing heavy rain in the coastal provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian, after lashing Taiwan.

It has since weakened, bringing dark skies and heavy squalls to Hong Kong.

"The provincial flood control headquarters said another storm will hit the provinces soon, and more than 266,000 people working out at sea have been recalled to land," Xinhua news agency said.

Wutip, or butterfly, formed east of the Philippines early on Wednesday and was expected to hit Taiwan, a self-ruled island off China's coast, on Thursday.

"Wutip could follow the path of Pabuk and will create waves of up to six metres (20 feet) high," Xinhua said.

China has already relocated hundreds of thousands of people along its southeast coast. The provincial flood control headquarters said they have mobilised troops and police to increase patrols and stack sandbags around ponds and reservoirs.

The tropical storms, as opposed to full-fledged typhoons, come at the tail-end of a summer in which a series of natural disasters in China has claimed 936 lives, mainly in floods, landslides and house collapses.